Demilich soul gems

[Avigor]

Assume you were about to become a Demilich and you are a bit eccentric; what ideas can you come up with to make anyone who somehow defeats your body hesitate to destroy your soul gems?

Using some sort of Crown Jewels or otherwise historically or similarly significant gems seems to be a quick choice, but I could also see there being quite a few people getting incensed that you corrupted their legacy and going out for your blood.

Another idea that comes to mind is trying to make them look like some other kind of magical gem to trick the naive, but that's almost as bad as just hoping that they will merely think them to be expensive gems or spell components and pocketing them.

My last thought is to animate a skeleton, attach your Demilich form to it replacing the appropriate part, and try and pretend that you aren't actually a Demilich and the gems are just spell components or some sort of custom reusable magic items of Trap the Soul you implanted into your hand for convenience (you could even pretend that they take your gloves slot lol).

Anyone got any other ideas?

[Esprit15]

Some weird epic spell that does Bad Things (TM) when the gems are destroyed.

A spell that contingently scatters the gems across the planes into areas that are just as dangerous as your phylactery's hiding place if your main body is destroyed.

[Zanos]

Give whoever wields them totally sweet powers? Adventurers aren't going to smash your soul gems if they're +12 gems of Strength or whatever.

[Avigor]

Give whoever wields them totally sweet powers? Adventurers aren't going to smash your soul gems if they're +12 gems of Strength or whatever.

Is there a RAW way to do this other than some sort of contingent spell, like literally using an ioun stone or a third eye crystal or something more obscure or custom as the soul gem?

[Zancloufer]

Is there a RAW way to do this other than some sort of contingent spell, like literally using an ioun stone or a third eye crystal or something more obscure or custom as the soul gem?

Considering that each Soul Gem is a Non-Epic Wounderous Magical Item the rules for making custom magic items still apply to them. I would say that they are expensive but being Epic level it probably wouldn't be too hard to enchant them. Just don't forget the double cost for creation due to them being slotless.

[Nifft]

Awesome powers is a great technique.


Secondary technique ideas:
- One face of every tooth-gem is also a portal to the demi-plane of mirrors; breaking them is seven years of really phenomenally bad luck each.
- Merge some gems with the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar, so a legit artifact must be destroyed to end your phylactery.
- The teeth are just gems with souls in them, like any evil 20th level wizard could make. Your soul-gems are the ones in your finger-bones, which are in a chest in the corner under a pile of gold, gems, and other bones.

[Esprit15]

Each is a custom item that lets the user cast Choose Destiny at will. Or Time Stop. Or any other super useful spell.

[Avigor]

- One face of every tooth-gem is also a portal to the demi-plane of mirrors; breaking them is seven years of really phenomenally bad luck each.

Awesome, love it.


- The teeth are just gems with souls in them, like any evil 20th level wizard could make. Your soul-gems are the ones in your finger-bones, which are in a chest in the corner under a pile of gold, gems, and other bones.

So basically a decoy body? Unless it is some kind of undead familiar you're going to be extremely limited in options unless I'm missing something, and even then, is there a way to cast non-touch spells through a familiar? Because if not, you will be probably even more limited...

Does anyone know of any magical (not psionic, to keep the demilich process simple) classes or feats that feature special powers or options tied to gems, jewels, or crystals, beyond the Attune Gem feat (which is basically a faster and tied to an item Craft Contingent Spell variant)? Like the Mind's Eye Crystal Master, but magical? If it exists I suspect it's from either an online supplement I'm not familiar with (which is most of them) or a 3rd party book.
EDIT: Or pathfinder, as I'm not very familiar with that.

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, ideally you want to do different things for each gem. Nerules aura to make one look non-magic and hide it somewhere mundane, like a ring sold to a merchant to disapear into commerce. One should be placed in a bag of holding and then have the bag destroyed. Be sure to be able to cast planeshift without a focus to return home from an unfindable location in the atherial plane. One should be supernaturally paoed (or a complex chain of pao into a creature, flesh to stone, stone to mud, purrify water to be undispellable) into water and then thrown into the ocean or a river.

Shoot one into space at relativistic speeds.

You get the idea.

[Nifft]

So basically a decoy body? Unless it is some kind of undead familiar you're going to be extremely limited in options unless I'm missing something, and even then, is there a way to cast non-touch spells through a familiar? Because if not, you will be probably even more limited...

Hmm, good point.

So, maybe there are two jeweled hands, one of which is the actual main body. They're in plain sight, but the jeweled skull is on a prominent pedestal and gets described first.

When the skull rises and howls, the dusty shape of negative energy and hate picks up some nearby bones from the ground -- including two skeletal hands -- and that one hand is used for all spellcasting, since it's secretly the main body.

Some clues for the PCs:

- The pale blue lights in the skull's eye sockets were just dancing lights. They don't fade immediately when the skull falls.

- Whenever casting or soul-sucking, "dark energy gathers around the figure's skeletal right hand".

Hmm, would it be plausible to have plaster "bones" covering the hand's soul-gems? Then when the hand falls after the demi-lich is defeated, there could be some powdery residue, and a Search check reveals the gems peeking through...